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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Calendar Moments, Health Thoughts

I looked at the calendar this morning and it really hit me that
Thanksgiving is in three weeks. No, really, it is! Sorry if you didn't realize, but it's on the early
side this year. Perhaps I should be grateful that we have ours in
November, not October, the way our neighbors to the north do (any Canadians reading?): October
has been such a blur, as it is every year, and when I contemplate
November, well. Here it is already, ready or not.

I hope my November will be a tad
less crazy than October. That doesn't seem like too much to ask for. I'm
still feeling a little over-stretched today, to be honest, and though
you haven't asked, I'll tell you that I haven't gone back to the Y yet.
Partly their schedule, partly mine, and only a little I-don't-wanna,
really.

I did go for a walk on Sunday, thirty minutes* of striding and puffing and
not stopping even up a moderate hill. (I didn't bring my camera, so I wasn't able to stop for all the tempting photo opportunities; this is key for me.) And the amount of laundry I got
through over the weekend made for a lot of stairs. But I know I need to
get to the Y, and I should be using the stationary bike in my living
room as more than a clothes hanger. I don't wanna do that either, but these last few pounds I've gained are past my tipping point, plus my doctor is displeased with my blood pressure**. Sigh. Aging sucks.
*And even after that short amount, the soles of my feet were slightly
tender. I have such wimpy feet. Walking as the sole method of exercise
will not work for me.

**First time I've ever had that kind of trouble, and I'd rather avoid medication if I can, I guess.

After work tonight, though I didn't get to the Y, I went to Wilson's and loaded up on healthy foods. Have to have them around in order to eat them, right? I had a salad for dinner, not a common happening for me, and it was pretty good. I also got cider, and I'm going to try it in my smoothie and see how I like that.

The cashier at Wilson's was in training, checking with the bagger for which codes to enter, and my, but it seems like a lot of numbers to learn. She would guess on some, though she wasn't usually right, but when she got to the star fruit, she said simply, "I don't even know what that is." And when my mother reads this, she will boggle at the idea that I buy star fruit, since she has a friend who gives them away by the bag from the tree in her yard, and Mum doesn't even like them! I like them well enough, for once in a while. I guess today was that day.
Another Wilson story: I was at a Starbucks recently and someone asked me if I got my bag at Wilson's. I said, "Uh, no?" before I realized what she meant, and she was right: Wilson Leather, not Wilson Farms!

Healthy food to end the day, a cleaning at the dentist to start it ... you'd hardly know it was Halloween, would you?

*****

I had an even happier calendar moment today, or rather calendar/map moment,
when I was considering my trip to Webs on Nov 10th (to see Franklin
Habit, yay), and realized that on the way back, I could swing in to the
Wegmans in Northborough by barely going out of my way. Wooo! Wegmans! I
am going to be one happy (and worn out) camper by the time I get home
that night.

*****
File this one under both The Kitchen is a Dangerous Place and under I Am Amazingly Clumsy: I managed to give myself a "paper" cut on a piece of tin foil. Yes! It can be done! Without even trying, might I add. It's on the palm of my hand, halfway between the base of the thumb and the first finger. That's going to be all sorts of awkward, I can tell already.

All right, I'm going to watch the Bruins rerun on TV (god bless you, NESN) and move the clothes off the bike. Maybe I'll even ride for a few minutes!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Life Moves On (the Clean House Edition)

I actually did go into work this afternoon, after learning that a few others had made it in, and I had no trouble. There were branches down here and there, but not on the road, and other than feeling a little jumpy about it, and one traffic light that was blinking yellow instead of three-color, I found it a pretty normal drive. There are still plenty of people without power (and oh, am I grateful to have mine), but for me, life has gone back to normal pretty quickly. I went to acupuncture tonight, I have a dentist appointment in the morning ... stuff. Life. With an extra dose of gratitude for its normality.

And what's on my mind, post-storm? It's actually something out of the ordinary for me: house cleaning. Last month, I saw a Groupon deal for house cleaning, and decided to
bite the bullet and get it. I'm not a good housekeeper; I'm too lazy to
do much around the place, and that means that the corners start getting
furry long before I get around to doing anything about them. I doubt
I'll become a regular client, but the occasional deeper clean would be a
Good Thing. The deal is for two sessions (it cost a total of $89, and I
suppose I should tip on top of that, right? anyone know what's standard?), and I booked the first
for this Saturday.

So what does this mean? First, I have some tidying
to do! I used to laugh at my mother when I was a kid and she was tidying
up for the cleaning lady. Now, of course, I understand better that
in order to clean it, they have to be able to get at it. (Whatever it is.) And
to be honest, a little external motivation to tidy up isn't a bad thing
for me. There are things about living alone (well, without other
humans) that I very much enjoy, but there's a line between 'enjoy' and
'abuse' that I don't want to cross. No, I don't have to do the dishes
the instant they're dirty, but how long do I want to leave them? Even if
there are other things I'd rather be doing?

Each session is supposed to be two hours, and I'm
planning to bring Carlos out to the car and hang out with him there.
Miri's on her own, I'm afraid; I'm just not willing to shed blood to
catch her, and honestly being caught and then being with me in the car,
even with it unmoving, would likely stress her out as much as playing
hide-and-seek with the cleaners will.

Do you have outside help with cleaning, or anything else? What's your experience been?

I'm Fine. Are You?

As you can see, the cats are very stressed by the storm.

I feel very fortunate to have come through the storm unscathed. The wind and rain yesterday afternoon felt like being in a giant car wash, and when the power flicked off around 4, I thought that was it for me, but it came right back on and stayed. This morning the sun is shining, part of the time at least, and there's hardly a breath of wind. We may have water in the basement, I haven't checked yet, but even the trash cans that blew away were dragged back this morning by a neighbor, and the regular trash pickup has already happened. Counting blessings very much, here.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Home, and Safe for Now

So, as planned, I went into the office and worked this morning. Must say, as a silver lining to this storm, the commute was nice! I came home at lunch time, and found that, surprise, surprise, my document didn't want to play nicely on my old version of Word. So sad that I have to take some time off! Such a shame, really. I popped some popcorn to celebrate.

So for now, all's fine here. It's a bit rainy* and veryveryvery windy, trash cans blowing down the street and all, but other than that... Apparently there are already 50,000 in MA who have lost power; my guess is that's mostly along the coast. I hope I keep mine; Carlos is already mad at me for closing the window--his window--and if the heated bed loses heat, I don't imagine he'll be pleased!
*Like going through the car wash more than anything else.

Anyway, I feel like I'd better get this up while I have power. Hopefully after the storm is done, my biggest annoyance will still be missing stitch and bitch tonight--if that's the case, I'll feel very lucky!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Only a Week Later: Rhinebeck, Day Two

Yes, it is finally time to get to last Sunday at Rhinebeck. It's been so crazy around here, somehow, though it's the kind of crazy that, if I list all the things, doesn't sound like it should be that crazy ... but it makes me crazy, so I declare that it IS crazy. There.

When I covered Day One, I brought us up to dinner Saturday night at the good old Eveready Diner, which I highly recommend if you're in that area. We went from there back to the motel (we had run down to check in before dinner), and there was a note on one room door asking me to come to the office. I went along, and the woman there asked if there was any way we could use two rooms instead of three. Wise One and her Niece were sharing, and New Knitter and I had mutually agreed not to (you know I love to save money, but the quiet time is worth a lot to me; and then, she was getting over the flu, and still coughing, which made it seem an even better decision)(Never Comes to Meetings, by the way, was added to our group after I reserved our rooms, so she got one on her own). The motel woman said that she'd over-booked, she couldn't find another room at any motel nearby, and she was begging me to give up a room. I tried not to give in, but not only was she so imploring*, I felt bad at the thought of someone coming to the motel for a reserved room and being told that they were SOL. Then what would you do?
*Apparently next year, we will be getting "the best rooms". This motel is pretty basic, and I'm curious just how nice the best rooms can be!

So I ended up sharing the room with Wise One and her Niece, which actually had three beds (since I am not sharing a bed, no compromise there), and it was fine, just not the quiet rejuvenation I had planned. Though I do wonder where the young get all that energy! Niece stopped talking eventually, sure .. when she was asleep.

But it really was fine, and we talked a bit before falling into exhausted sleep: all that walking around, fresh air, and the yarn highs just wore me out! And seriously, my arms were already sore by Saturday night, and only got more so on Sunday. I'm a wimp.

Sunday morning, we packed up, checked out, and had breakfast back at the diner, then drove north to the festival. Like the last few years, we saw some great old cars going the other way on our drive. Fantastic! And then we were back in heaven. Before I go on, here are a few pictures from Saturday that I didn't get into the Day One recap. The license plate of someone with a Boston accent:

Alternately, it could be Lobstah, but never with the R!

We'd been talking in the car about the idea of being a yarn snob, so I had to get a photo of the "micron snob" mug.

And another mug that I liked, "Live, Love, Llamas".

In the award display area, this man was demonstrating a pendulum wheel: the dangling part on the left really did swing back and forth. Since I don't understand how modern spinning wheels work, really, I didn't even try to follow what he was saying about this one, but it was pretty cool. Needs its own room, though!

Right, now, Sunday! I didn't go around the animal barns very much this year; see last year's post if you miss all those pictures. But there were a few, of course. Bunnies, for instance, this one:

And that one:

And one sheep picture, since I don't think it's legal to write about Rhinebeck without one:

What curls!

I did make it to the punkin chuckin', which I hadn't realized was a competition between local school teams (high school and college). They were quite serious about it, in their hard hats.

It was fun, but I didn't stay long. By mid-day Sunday, I was in an advanced enough state of tired that staying still for too long would have led in short order to "not moving again", and there were still things I wanted to see. Could I have forgiven myself if I didn't get to see this creative sock display? I think not.

And I did swing through the llama barn, too:

Eyeliner, darling, all the llamas wear it.

And, yes, I bought more yarn. I finally photographed it today, though the lighting was not ideal. Better than no pictures, anyway!

Here's the complete haul, yarn-wise:

Not bad, eh? I had a good time! New Knitter asked on the way home how long it would take me to knit it all, and my guess was that if I knit only from this (which of course will not be happening), it would last me a year. Maybe? Who knows.

Moving on to specifics, there's the Socks That Rock I showed you already, two skeins of lightweight ("single cell dating pool" and "puddle of bleu", specifically), most likely destined to be socks:

And the skein of mediumweight, which I plan to use for Drin's ribbed mitts pattern (it'll make more than one pair, we'll see how long that takes me).

This colorway is called Tempest, and it's a nice dark teal sort of color.

On Sunday, I couldn't resist one more skein, in heavyweight this time. Look at the yellow! "Saffron surprise".

I don't know if this will be thicker socks, or if I'll make something else with it. I just couldn't say no to that color.

I got another skein at The Fold's booth, and it's my big splurge, but when I touched it, and touched a shawl made from it, well, no contest. There were some gorgeous saturated colors, but I went with a more neutral shade, with an eye to being able to wear it more flexibly. This is from The Grinning Gargoyle, and it is ...

Yes, 100% mink. Mink! Unbelievably soft.

Pictures cannot express it, I'm afraid, but if you're on the fence about getting it, then do so! I haven't worked with it yet, but the feel of the yarn itself is amazing.

Now, more lovely sock yarns.

This one is a purply sort of blue, and (you can say this about everything I got) so soft!

Merino, nylon, and cashmere.

The same blend as the Sock Dream from Periwinkle Sheep, which I showed you previously:

And the same as this one:

And again, this one:

AND the same as this one! Are you sensing a theme, here?

Then this one is merino and nylon, no cashmere, still so soft:

A couple of yarns actually are not sock-weight, if you can believe it. Lovely autumn colors in blue-face leicester, DK weight.

And this one, the colors that speak to me so much. Merino-tencel, handpaint.

I got three different brands of sock needles, in hopes that one will feel more pointy than the others:

I got the little project bag, which I'm using now, and also picked up some super-fun buttons at The Fold's booth.

All very true!

And as you can see a hint of in the project bag photo, progress is being made on the latest sock. I did the heel flap last Wednesday, and turned it Thursday, and on we go. Fun wide stripes and bright colors as the daylight dwindles.

Also working on Christmas knitting, thus un-show-able, but happy with it, so that's good news.

So that's Rhinebeck and all along with it. Back in the present day for now, I'm trying to determine what this storm is going to mean for me. Reports are very mixed, with representation from both the "we're all going to diiiiieeeeee!" side and the "whatever, wind and rain, you people are wimps" side. It's hard to know who to believe.

One report I read said that for my kind of area, being inland from the
coast, wind and rain will be the extent of it, but there's going to be a
lot of wind, which may cause further problems like power outages even with our distance
from coastal flooding areas. On the other hand, schools are already
announcing that they're closing tomorrow, and the governor is asking businesses
to close Monday as well; I guess the worst of the storm will be Monday
afternoon, and they don't want people stuck.

My boss forwarded on an e-mail from the management people of our office park, so
I'll be able to check before I go in the morning that they're going to
be open; for now, they're planning to. However, the boss recommends we
either work from home (not easy for the three of us without laptops, of course), or plan to take a personal day (or two, since Tuesday may not be good either). I'll probably go in for
the morning, then bring work home, unless anything changes drastically before then. I just don't know; I guess I'll have
to play it as it comes.

I have plenty of food and water, I've caught up on the laundry and
showered and the dishwasher is running, so I'm pretty much ready for it,
whatever it turns out to be.

To be honest, what's bothering me the most is that stitch and bitch is probably out for tomorrow night. Rats.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Stormy Weather

A while back, I signed up with Boston.com to receive "Breaking News" alerts in my e-mail, and in retrospect I ought to have started counting from the beginning how many of what they consider important enough to be an alert related to the Red Sox (general answer: a lot). Today's alert had me laughing, though. Here's the subject line of the e-mail:

Now, if you didn't know that the governor's name is Deval Patrick, and that the mega-storm bearing down on the state is named Sandy, wouldn't that be funny?

Then, after laughing and copying that for the blog, I went to read the story, since it is actually news that might affect me. And I had to laugh again at this part, where you have to understand that the "she" in the line is a National Weather Service meteorologist:

This combination of forces has prompted some to dub the hurricane
“Frankenstorm.” That is not a term that the National Weather Service
endorses, she said.

No! You don't say! They don't officially call it Frankenstorm? And yet they give it the oh-so-threatening name "Sandy"? No sense of humor, I tell you.

I'm hoping to be back here finishing up my Rhinebeck story later tonight or tomorrow, but for now, the laundry is too loud to ignore. If we do lose power, I'd better have clean clothes!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Little Typing, but Fun Hockey Links

My hands are having a bad day, for whatever reason (I don't think 15 minutes of knitting last night did it, though it did accomplish a heel turn on the latest sock), so I'm not going to finish Rhinebeck tonight. Let me pander to the fellow hockey-starved tonight instead.

When I lived in Charlotte, NC lo these many years ago (seriously, ten years since I moved, how is that possible?), the minor league Checkers were my team, as I could only follow the Bruins from afar so much in those pre-Internet days. [My mother mailed me the stories from the newspaper in 2004, that's how old-school we were! ;)] Checkers games were a lot of fun, and though they never replaced the Bruins in my heart, I was happy to see the team again in this video (though looking quite different since their uniforms now proclaim them to be a Hurricanes farm team), drumming up business for their new season by covering the Vanilla Ice classic, Ice Ice Baby.

Though it did make me want to listen to, not the Vanilla Ice "original", but to the song whose music he ripped off. I give you Under Pressure, by Queen with David Bowie.

There, that's better. Now, back to hockey!

Another minor league team that I feel some mild alliance to is the Florida Everblades, since I've been to a game with my mother. I loved this story from Puck Daddy about the creative way an ad agency is advertising on the (and this is key) visitor's bench at the arena.

Very nice! And do click through on the story link to see the picture of what the exterminator's ad says, too. You don't have to tell me that Truly Nolen is creative, since I'm used to seeing their fun cars around southwest Florida, but well played, indeed.

Back here again--I got to watch part of game 6 in the 2011 Montreal series last night on NESN (so
I knew they lost that one, and could go to bed before the end), and tonight I got to see the third period and OT of that
game 7, with the Bruins winning in overtime, which was still pretty
exciting, even almost a year and a half later and knowing the outcome. Jack was so excited! Which brings me to a recent video find via Bruins fan blog Stanley Cup of Chowder. In past years, they've titles posts "Monday Morning Skate" and so on; this year, they switched to "Monday Mourning Skate" which is sadly more fitting.

What is the video, you ask? All Jack Edwards! Ah, the manic laughter, "cry me a river," the ode to the composite stick, "snowball 1, hell 0" ... love it!

The end, and his ramble, isn't as much fun, but the first 5+ minutes had me smiling and laughing. My hockey!

Some other fun videos, if that isn't enough (Youtube is a rabbit hole):
Tyler Seguin scored his first goal in Boston, it's against Toronto, and the crowd taunts, "Thank you, Kessel".

Thursday, October 25, 2012

In (from dinner) and Out (to watch hockey on TV)

News in the world of book publishing today is that Penguin and Random House are discussing a merger. Since I no longer work in a book-related field, this doesn't have a huge impact on me, but I bring it up because it led to this chunk of awesomeness from author John Scalzi (via BoingBoing):

YES! PLEASE! I would like to order a book from Random Penguin, please.

Now, I have an update from Tuesday night. I signed off that night to go watch the Bruins rerun on TV, and before bedtime, I was ready to take back the nice things I'd said about NESN. I turned on the
TV at 7 to see my hockey panacea, and they were doing a "special" NESN
Daily because the Red Sox announced their new manager. Maybe, I said to
myself, they'll just delay the hockey for half an hour for this ... but
no, at 8:30 it was still going on. Actually, I think they were
re-running the same 30 minutes of programming over and over, since when I
checked back on the half-hours, each intro was very like the last, but I
may not be right on that. All the same, it was rather a crushing blow. Hit a fan when she's down, why don't you? But tonight, there's a game on after all, so Carlos and I are off to watch that. Later, y'all!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Not More Rhinebeck (Yet)

The good news about today is that my migraine did not come back. The bad news is that the headache of my day was Microsoft-based, and it was a pretty bad work day. Still better than the migraine the day before! But not by much, and tomorrow doesn't look great either. The good news about that is that the report in question absolutely positively we mean it this time has to be done by the end of the day Thursday, so that it is on its way to India for them to do their thing on Friday. Which means tomorrow will very likely suck, but then that stressor will be off my desk, in whatever state it's in.

This report was originally supposed to be finished in July, and I don't thing one single thing along the way has gone right the first time. A corrupted file and hours of work lost today is the least of it, really. But I'm glad I had knitting tonight, with casual conversation and showing off Rhinebeck yarns, to re-set me for tomorrow.

So, no more about Rhinebeck tonight. Tomorrow may not work either, but we'll see when we get there. Meanwhile, if you have a few minutes, go look at the Globe's Big Picture feature today: all balloons! There are some really cool photos there.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Rhinebeck, Day One (after a short un-health update)

Well, here I am, such as I am. After having a slight headache yesterday, today I woke with a slightly stronger one, that got worse through the morning, until I had to leave work because I couldn't concentrate (on much beyond how my head hurt and my stomach was rolling, anyway). Funny how an editor needs to have her brain to work!

I came home, got in bed with a blanket wrapped around my head and a purr-ball by my side, and dozed for a few hours. Got up around 4 with the head much improved, but the stomach still crazy-upset. My system is weird, right? I've tried a ginger ale and some Tums, but it's still rock-and-rolling down there. At least the head is better! I hope that lasts. Meanwhile, I am making hay while the sun shines, so to speak. Let's talk about Rhinebeck! I don't have pictures of Sunday's haul yet, but we can cover some ground with what I do have.

As always, it's a short trip with a lot crammed in, and so is a little stressful for me. That said, it's wonderful, and I can't imagine I'll ever not want to go. We did talk about going up Friday afternoon one year, to have time to look around the area since it's so beautiful, so we'll see if next year is that year.

Saturday morning I drove to the house of the friend who borrowed her sister's van so we could road-trip it. She's a very experienced, knowledgeable, and fearless knitter, so we'll call her the Wise One. I left my car there (since overnight on-street parking is allowed where she lives), and we went to pick up the others in our party: first, a New Knitter who we had lured into coming with our tales of Rhinebecks past; next, a knitter who belongs to our stitch and bitch group on Ravelry though she Never Comes to Meetings, and who we'd only met when she joined us for the North Shore yarn crawl a few years ago; and finally, Wise One's niece, who I think is 13, and who came last year as well. She's a nice kid, but with an appalling amount of energy (more on that later). Then we were away!

We left the final pick-up around 9:30, and arrived at the festival around 1 o'clock. The drive was pleasantly uneventful, with the foliage still beautiful though past its peak. I ate my lunch sandwich early (since part of the fun of being a grown-up is that you can eat your lunch at 10 if you want to), and then took my turn of driving the second half of the trip. And you know where my first stop was:

Hooray for The Fold! Look at all that Socks That Rock, and that's just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Wowza. I had some fun there (Saturday and Sunday, in fact, but let's stay chronological).

I had a commission from another knitting friend who couldn't come this year (giving the lame excuse of a 25th anniversary trip, whatever), and asked me to get her a skein. I've talked up my STR love so much that she recently decided to try it herself, but the skein she got was mediumweight, and when the socks started coming out too large, she decided to give them to her father (who loves the socks she knits him) and get another skein for herself. I was able to find a skein of lightweight in a similar color to the one she got and liked, so let's hope it will do for her.

I met Drin while I was there, which was fun: I was telling Niece that the button that I'd picked up with the mushroom on it (picture to come) was for the designer, Mushroom Knits, and how she's the designer of my all-time favorite sock pattern, and she was right behind us! We talked about her patterns (which were
why I went back Sunday), and she showed me how her Ribbed Mitts pattern
looks with yarn held singled versus doubled, as well as with and without
a thumb. Cool!

And for me? Two skeins of the lightweight:

Then I got a skein of mediumweight, in a nice teal, for the fingerless mitts. Drin's pattern!

After that? Well, it's a happy blur of yarns and yarn things and yarn people, who are by and large very happy with where they are. I only experienced two not-happy people the whole weekend. The first was on Saturday: I was in line to pay for some yarn, and the woman behind me was a total crab, muttering about how the women at the front of the line were "having a coffee hour" and should "just go on the internet for lessons", presumably instead of talking to the woman from that booth. I can't comprehend how you can stand there with your arms full of wonderful yarn and be so cross! I said something about how I'd only been there for an hour, so I was still excited about it, and she said that she'd only been there an hour, but she was fed up and had decided to get some yarn and go. Huh!

[The second woman was in a different booth; I'd seen her talking to another customer, and thought she worked there, but when I asked her to be sure, she gave a very short, "Yes." So I asked her how much the lovely skein of 100% cashmere was, and she snapped, "Eighty-five dollars," as though I had criticized her mother. So, you're working in a booth that doesn't price the yarn, either on the label or with a posted list, so people have to ask, it's really nice and therefore expensive, and this is how you treat someone who might give you money? Well, guess what, honey, I can afford your yarn, but I choose not to. Thanks anyway.]

Back to Saturday! I had a wonderful wander through a lot of the booths, without feeling the pressure to see everything; hooray for being able to go both days. At one point, I stepped aside for a little out-of-the-crowd time; the area that on Sunday was to be crammed with people watching the punkin chuckin' was quiet and lovely Saturday afternoon.

And as long as I was there, I took some pictures of the yarn so far:

Specifically, the STR that you already saw above, and... a skein of Sock Dream from the Periwinkle Sheep:

I'm hesitant about the color, since knitting in dark yarns really needs good light, but by the time I got to the booth*, it was this or purple, and I think I would wear dark grey socks more than royal purple ones. This is the same yarn that I got last year, with birthday money from my grandmother; it has 10% cashmere, and I really love the socks I made with it. Possibly not the most sensible fiber to use in socks, but really, nothing about hand-knitting socks is that sensible.
*I guess next year, this should be my second stop!

Then there's some lovely blue sock yarn from the vendor that I see at Apple Festival and at Rhinebeck.

I saw this skein before I could reach it, and I knew it was meant for me when a customer nearer to it reached out a hand and I panicked, thinking she was going for it. She wasn't, and I grabbed it as soon as I could. Mine! Blue, soft, and again, 10% cashmere.

There was a non-sock yarn purchase, as well. When I saw this one, I told the woman that she couldn't have dyed it better for me if she knew me. My colors!

There were two skeins, and I took them both (thank you again, mama, for the birthday money!). They're half tencel and half merino, wholly soft and completely lovely.

Wait, I forgot a sock yarn! And yes, another that's, say it with me, 10% cashmere. This one is a new brand to me, from Bittersweet, a line called Glamour Gams.

So squishy soft. Love. And also love this, a little project bag for carrying my sock around in. A little variety soothes the soul.

Photography finished, I took out the sock to work on it a little, which is also soothing. Here's where it was.

Wide stripes are a fun change. This is Felici from Knit Picks. A few rounds, and I was good to go on. I liked this building:

And was so stunned by this man's hair that I had to Kinnear him. Is that all one dreadlock?

It really seemed as though it was. Whoa. Just, whoa.

Now, some lovely mittens on display:

I love that poem.

That's it for festival photos on Saturday, but I did get some pictures of the fun menu at the Eveready Diner, where we had dinner (and breakfast, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

I think I will leave you there for now, as NESN, god bless them, has another Quest for the Cup 2011 game on tonight, and it starts shortly. I heated up a chicken pot pie that I hope will settle my stomach down, and since that's ready too, I believe I will take the hint and get off the computer.